Antigone Criticism

mostly offline

Objective for this Page: To present secondary sources which
may deepen your understanding of the play.

Aristotle's
Poetics, chapter 4, defines and analyzes tragedy as Aristotle found
it in ancient Greece, especially Athens. Supposedly, Antigone
didn't fit well his definition of a tragedy because Antigone didn't realize
anything; those who would differ point to her last speech where she lists what
she is losing by dying young. Perhaps, though, Antigone best fits a modern
notion of heroic protagonist because she dies for a principle, nobly, but at the
hand of an oppressor.

Incest: Prof. Frank of Buffalo State College suggests that Antigone's
concern [and perhaps her affections?] focus not on Haemon but on Polyneices.
Thematically, this notion continues the incest motif established in
Oedipus.

Hope: In his conclusion, Prof. Frank suggests that Ismene, who rejects
Antigone's invitation to a virtual suicide pact in the opening scene, is the
sole survivor of the play--and the only hope of the family. He speculates
that she will marry outside the family and bear children not infected by the
family curse.

Holt, according the abstract in the InfoTrac Expanded Academic Index,
examines "5th century Athenian beliefs regarding the polis, law, citizen
solidarity, family loyalty, structure of the drama, and differing responses to
things in real life and those in the theater."

Jones, Adrian. Antigone
and Modern Feminists is posted in the archive of the Jolly Roger/Moby Dick
discussion forum. It considers several ways in which Antigone does (and in
some ways, perhaps, does not) act in a way consistent with feminism.

Knox, Bernard. The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy. University
of California Press, 1964. Excerpted in John Schilb and John Clifford, Making
Literature Matter, Boston: Bedford-St. Martin's, 2000: 1346-1347.

Though motivated by personal passions, both Creon and Antigone appeal to
conflicting greater sources of obligation--peace for the society (polis)
or divine law. Creon rejects the obligations of family by refusing burial
to a nephew, burying alive a niece, and refusing marriage to his son. His
ruin comes back to him through his family, who turns against him. But
Creon can't really claim that he acted for the good of Thebes; instead, he is a
tyrant, imposing his will on everyone and even claiming that he owns the city
more than its citizens do. Even the gods turn against Creon because he was
wrong.

Antigone championed the family--but in the end realized that she acted only
for her specific dead relative and would not act so for a different
[replaceable] family member. Antigone is vindicated while Creon is vilified.
But Antigone acts more against Creon, it seems, than for the greater good of
Thebes; her action is personal--to save her brother, not to save the city.

Creon was motivated by hatred, Antigone by love, as is evident in her last
speech when she anticipates seeing her parents and brothers.

This article centers on why Antigone was so concerned over the body of
Polynices and why she committed suicide. [Of course, these are A's two acts of
defying Creon, but I don't know if that's the thrust of this article.]

Lines, Patricia. "Antigone's Flaw." Humanitas.
Spring 1999 v12 i1 p4.

Lines suggests that Antigone's flaw is self-righteousness and self-certainty
that led to her self-imposed isolation by not listening to Ismene or seeking out
Haemon. Perhaps in Antigone's final speech there is a sort of recognition
of what her hamartia has cost her.

Unity of Time: Morwood suggests that there are separate time schemes
for Antigone and for Creon. Although Antigone's tragedy may have played
out in a day, the decomposition of Polyneices' body suggests that Creon's fate
takes a bit longer.

Nussbaum, Martha. The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in
Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Excerpted in John Schilb and John Clifford, Making Literature Matter,
Boston: Bedford-St. Martin's, 2000: 1347-1349.

Antigone is devoted to the dead, cold to the living. Creon desires to
possess the inert, to use everyone as material. Antigone's
"ambition" seems to become a "corpse beloved of
corpses." Although no one, the chorus points out, escapes the impact
of Love (eros), but Creon sees interchangeable breeders where Haemon sees
love, and Antigone sees beloved people only among the dead, not the living,
despite the devotion of Ismene and Haemon. Creon learns that he has to
adopt the values of the city; Antigone learns that mourning is a communal act,
so she cannot ignore its public aspect.

Antigone is more admirable than Creon because she only denies a [sudden]
civic regulation while Creon violates a divine religious law and communal
practice of burying the dead. Although Antigone is derided for her
single-mindedness, hers serves an unwritten more of the community, which Creon
stubbornly violates. Antigone, ultimately, is responsible only for her own
principles; Creon seeks to impose his (wrong ones) on an entire community.
Antigone is complex yet vulnerable and ultimately rational; Creon simplifies to
the extreme and seems, in the end, quite irrational.